Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a great resource for student and teachers to use in school and at home. The subjects you can get extra practice with include, math, science & engineering, computing, arts & humanities, economics & finance, and test prep for ages K-adults. Khan Academy offers practices, videos, and even a personal learning "dashboard" for the user. I think this is a great tool for students to get extra practice. I think teachers should recommend this source to their students and teach them how to use it so they can really benefit from it. I also think it would be a great tool to inform the parents about because sometimes the parents want to help their child with homework but they don't always know how to help. 

VoiceThread

VoiceThread is an interactive, pre-K through 12th-grade, media player. Teachers and students can upload videos pictures, presentations and documents. It may look like a slideshow, but teachers and students can add comments, ask questions and critique. They will learn skills that are very important in today's world, such as, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. It has many different uses like recording students reading to check their progress. A really great feature is the ability to comment on a particular part of the VoiceThread, so that you are able to give specific feedback to each part of their work. They are a paid service and they can be obtained at a classroom, school, or district level with varying prices. The amount of features that are able to be used depends on what level is purchased. District licenses come with the most amount of features, while teacher licences come with the least. VoiceThread is an opportunity to assess student learning in a new way.

Young Scientist Lab

The Young Scientist Lab website offers many great opportunities for teachers, students, and families to become engaged in the world of science.  The goal of the site is to ‘foster a new generation of scientist who are inspired to improve the world with science’.

For teachers is offers a large number of lesson plans suited for ages K-8.  The lesson plans are free and allow you to begin engaging your students in ‘doing’ allowing them to begin discovering the science that impacts their everyday world.  The site also offers interactive activities which allows to students to make connections to the materials they are learning in schools to everyday science!

For students and parents there are many great activities and experiments that help capture students curiosity and allowing their parents to engage with them.  There is also a page where they can learn about 3M scientist and their discoveries and innovations in the area of everyday science. Last but certainly not least is a page for new and events which shares interesting developments and content about discoveries and insights that are currently happening all over the world and well as new information that the Young Scientist site has to offer!

Every year they hold the Young Scientist Challenge, which is a competition for students in grades 5-8 submit their solution to an everyday problem!  The winners of the challenge have the opportunity to work with 3M mentors to work towards turning your idea into a reality!

This site offers so many great recourse and the best bit is that they are all free!

STEM Resources: STEM-Works

STEM-Works is an awesome website that has tons of STEM resources for teachers and students. The website is easy to navigate and organized by various subjects, including weather, medical innovations, space, animals, video games, and many more! Each subject tab includes articles and fun activities for students.  STEM-Works allows children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through topics that they are individually interested in. Each category also introduces cool jobs related to the subjects, which engages students in career choices at an early age. Interested in life under the sea? Use the “Under the Sea” tab to explore various videos, activities, articles, and cool jobs all about marine life!

It is important to allow the students to research topics on their own, instead of a teacher providing students with all the same information. STEM-Works allows students to explore the same information, just specific to the subject that interests them.

Teachers can use the “Advocacy” tab to explore virtual tours or simulations that allow students to explore different locations and projects based on their interests. This tab is also categorized by grade level from elementary school to undergraduate! The “Activity” tab provides fun lesson plans categorized by subject. The lesson plans are free and include background information, lists of materials needed, the procedure, and different variations of the lesson so that you can make it your own.

STEM-Works is a great website that provides great STEM resources for all ages and all interests. You can find the link to the STEM-Works website below!

STEM-Works

STEM resource - Science Buddies

Science Buddies is a website that provides various STEM resources to teachers, students, and parents. For teachers, there are lesson plans, classroom kits, guides to using google classroom and engineering design as well as a step by step introduction to the scientific method. The lesson plans come with teacher guides and worksheets that all align with the science standards so teachers can use the materials with confidence. The lesson plans are fun and engaging and are well mapped out for ease of use. Some examples include balloon cars, bending plant roots, junk bots, electric play dough and many more!
Science Buddies even has tools to re-vamp the traditional science fair to make it focused on problem-solving and engineering while integrating science and math concepts. The website also has an extensive list of careers in STEM and an "Ask an Expert" forum where students can submit questions about different projects and get guidance and troubleshooting.
This website would be a great one to utilize in the classroom because it offers resources for students and teachers. Teachers can use the many lesson plans and project guides and become STEM experts in no time and the students can receive guidance for their STEM projects and explore real-life careers that apply what they have learned. Most of the basic kits are only about $15 and could be reused yearly so teachers get the most out of their purchases. When a teacher makes an account for free, they can access lesson plans that are easy to follow and list out everything they need as well as the corresponding science standards. This website is a great one to change from basic science to a world of STEM in the classroom.
Science Buddies Website
 

Quizlet

Quizlet is a very useful source for students. It is a way for students to be able to study before a test, quiz, or exam. Students can make flashcards for vocab, questions, etc. and go on to use different resources to review them. There are different games on quizlet for the students to use, along with the basic studying with flashcards. I have seen many students use quizlet, regardless of the grade they are in. I have even seen college students use it to prepare for exams. It is a quick, easy, and fun way to review material before a test. It is a free website and app, which makes it even better!

Quizlet link

Nearpod

Nearpod is a resource I stumbled upon that I found really interesting as an educational resource. It provides full online lessons that teachers can use or assign to students to have them cover maybe over vacation or as a homework assignment. They provide the lessons in a variety of media, like videos, games, powerpoints, and voiceovers. I thought this was super useful because it is very creative, for example to study algebra they bring the student into the world of roller coasters with interactive panoramas and draw-on boards to solve the problems.this technology can be used as a classroom as it record each student that logs on along with the lesson.

Pixton

Pixton is an online educational tool that allows for better engagement of the students. This tool lets the students sign up for free and create a comic about the lessons they have learned in class. It is a unique digital classroom tool that students love. They can present their lessons with the class in a very educational way. It is a form of storytelling that is personal and unique. Students can work on this at home or in the classroom. It is also a good assessment tool for teachers because they can grade the students on how well they have learned the lesson by telling it through Pixton.

Prezi

Prezi is a free online tool for students who are creating presentations. It is a fun and engaging way to get the students involved and have fun while creating their work. Prezi allows the students to make cool interactive presentations and collaborate on different projects with other students. Prezi can also connect with other devices to give you updates of your work. Prezi is not your standard PowerPoint slides, but a tool that gives "life" to the slides. It gives the users a new perspective on presentation methods that are not only visually appealing to the eye but also conductive to the audience and can include their engagement as well.

Duolingo

Duolingo is a free online educational resource for any student wanting to learn another language. There is an app that can be downloaded for free as well so the students can learn on the go! It is very easy to use and guides the students as they progress. It features comprehensive guides for nine different languages including Spanish, French, and German. Students are new at learning a new language, this is a helpful tool because it is a step by step and does not overwhelm the student with too much information at once. 

Aven's Corner Games was made specifically for children on the autism spectrum. A man with an ASD preschool-aged child started this site with games. They are helpful and engaging to young children, but is known to be simple enough for them. Although this was made for ASD children, it can be fun and engaging for others as well. As we know and even if you didn't know, individuals on the spectrum have a more difficult time socializing with others and getting involved with certain things and I believe this site can help them capture their attention. 

Crayola for educators

Crayola for educators is used by many teachers when they are planning lessons. There are many different lessons available to teachers for all ages. From crafts, to lessons, there is a variety of fun activities for teachers and students to do posted on the website. Along with the lesson plans, there's a "crayola store" where teachers can find materials for their classroom. There are also different resources posted for teachers to look at.

Crayola website 

Kubbu

kubbu.com

"Kubbu" is a learning tool for teachers of all backgrounds as well as students that have taken the homeschooling route. beneficial for teachers due to the fact that this site will produce activities for the teachers to hand out to their students, whether in a traditional classroom setting or in a home school setting. These pages created will be available on the Kubbu server which makes it more convenient for the teacher so they won't have to have their own server or website. This piece of educational technology is a great choice for a website because it will assist in guiding the students by checking where the student is at in the material. All in all, this website will track the student's knowledge and record their progress making it more convenient for the teacher in any setting.

Kid Blog

Kid blog is a fun way to get students involved in the classroom. It is typically used for elementary and middle school students. It is a safe way for students to write and post their thoughts. Teachers get to read the blog and decide whether or not it is appropriate to post. The teachers get to control what gets to be published, and what does not. It is free for both students and teachers!

Link to KidBlog 

PhET Interactive Simulations

PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

PhET Interactive Simulations is a website that is a part of the University of Colorado Boulder that offers a fun, free, collaborative science and mathematics simulations that have been backed by research.  The University expansively tested and assessed each simulation to certify educational success. The tests that the University performed include student interviews and observation of simulation use in the classrooms. The tools on this website include using “Click and drag” to interact on the website. A student can also record measurements in the given experiments with many instruments that include rulers, stop-watches, and thermometers. This educational site can really benefit a student in the Math and Science subjects with its interactive abilities.

CELLS alive!

https://www.cellsalive.com/

CELLS alive! is a website created by Jim Sullivan that has captured cell and organisms for educational and medical research. The images captured have been turned into interactive models for students to go through and study the parts of cells and organisms. This website has been annually updated since May of 1994. The majority of this website is free. This website provides print out sheets to download, puzzles, quizzes, and power points. This website is very informing and the content that this website contains can help to educate any student that does better with the visual aspect of learning with subjects from Microbiology to Anatomy, as well as general Biology.

Schoology

Schoology is described as a learning management program that connects students to teachers to other education professionals. This program is not just available for schools, it can also be utilized on a corporate level. The capability of this being used by both teachers/students and corporate is extremely beneficial. It institutes the importance of collaboration and active learning. It makes it easy for Teachers or Professionals create and share information. Assignments can be created in line with class objectives and grading in mind. There are also several pre-formatted lessons that can be used. The goal of the LMS is to connect education in all aspects available as well as advancing the possibilities. There isn't an immediate price available online, but a demo can be requested from the company.

Sketchboard

Sketchboard is a computer based website that allows colleagues or students to sketch or share visual items together, or collaborate. This would work great in the classroom setting if the students were working together but couldn't physically be together. This also functions well in the working industry that allows remote colleagues to work together on a specific document live, rather than continuously emailing back and forth. Unfortunately this is not a free program, the cost of a single user starts at $7 a month. For a team, it starts at $14 / month and can go up to $45/ month. Each package available has different capabilities. There are discounts for Teachers and those in the education field.

Nearpod

Nearpod allows you to broadcast live lessons to your class with simply entering a code. It simultaneously allows you to monitor completion and evaluate their scores.You can upload anything from a PDF to a Word Doc or Google Slides and then make them interactive. You can turn them into a quick quiz or allow the students to make a quick doodle. Through their site, you can explore existing lessons or drop in on a live lesson. A huge bonus to this is that the site actually allows it to be used on a VR Platform. The VR lessons range from free to $24.99 each, which can get a little pricey but all lessons have 5 individual lessons within them.Teachers can start off with a free account that they can then download the lessons from. They can also receive specific training on the programs to get certified.

Codecademy

This website teaches you how to code from the very beginning after creating a free account. It gives you step by step instructions for learning everything you need to know about beginner coding. This is good if you need a little more assistance when it comes to text creations and it tells you exactly what to insert in each space before proceeding to next steps in your coding experience. It uses different color text to separate each code so that your student knows what to replace and what to keep. It also highlights specific instructions to help students along the way. This is a great tool for students and teachers to use for beginner coding techniques.

 Click here to view website

Storyline Online

Storyline Online is a free website that students can go on and have books read aloud to them, it shows pictures of the story book as someone reads it aloud to you. What is cool about this website is that for each video, it is a different person reading it aloud - but each person is an actor from different tv shows/movies. Which means, your child might know the person reading their book aloud to them, which could encourage them to want to pay attention and watch as the book is read. There is also an option for teachers to view a step by step lesson plan for each book, with helpful questions of different things to review about the book, which will help them ponder and learn. This website can help students and teachers, which is great if you're looking for a no cost option for learning about reading skills.

Click here to view website

Frontiers for Young Minds

Frontiers for Young Minds is a free website for kids that want to learn more about science. There are many different research topics that you can choose from, as well as recent articles and news that is going on in the world of science. This site was created to build an open science platform where every child out there has an equal opportunity to seek, share and build knowledge in a range of topics. It empowers kids to look more into researching using different models and daily reports. It discuses a lot about what's happening at the moment around us and the article titles can easily grab the attention of children, giving them more of an incentive to want to learn about that topic.

Click here to view website

LibriVox

     

Free Public Domain Audiobooks

A large database of books, in audio format, available for Free! Powered by volunteers, and the best part is that it is ad-free. LibriVox is a not for profit organization, that raised money through fundraising efforts, which will fund their expenses for the next few years. There are roughly 600 titles available on the website, and that number will grow as more and more users contribute audio files. There are two ways to use this website, you can READ or LISTEN.................Browse by Author, Title, or Subject, each book has a summary and you can listen to a sample reading.

Click Here

Spiral

The complete learning platform. Can be used for both formal and summative assessments. Check students understanding of content, either as a whole, or check out statistics question by question. Can be linked with Google Classroom.  There are four ways this website can be used in the classroom. First, Quickfire can be used to create quizes or ask students questions. Videos can be shown using Clip. Team up can be used to assign teams and assign group presentations. Finally, Discuss can be used to engage the students in interactive participation with other users. 

Cost: Basic account is FREE

Click Here for Website

The International Children's Digital Library is a multicultural digital library created by the International Children’s Library. Books are available in nineteen different languages from all over the world. Students and teachers can search for books by age level, topic, the color of the book cover, length, and recently added. Text and pictures from every book can be enlarged. The ICDL's goal is create a collection of books that are relevant to the children of today and promote tolerance for those of other cultures. The site is designed to be easy for children to navigate. The primary focus for ICDL is children ages 3-13. This is a great resource to find books that would help kids with their reading by allowing them to find books that are relevant to them. I also could benefit those whoa re studying a second language and may need books that are easier to understand.

The Answer Pad

The online assessment tool! Replace the Scantron!
Tests are automatically scored for you, no need to waste precious time grading tests by hand.

There are two ways to use this site. First, the answer pad can replace the scantron, with electronic answer sheets for traditional quizzes and tests. The answer pad can also be used for informal assessment, student responses type questions. Question types include multiple choice, fill in the blank, slider bar, yes/no, pie chart, number wheel, and a blank space/graph for drawing.

Cost: Free ( but there is an upgrade available, for additional features)

www.theanswerpad.com

LiveBinders

An online binder! Organize all of your online resources in one place, with the same look of a traditional binder.
Used for schools, and businesses, resources are organized for easy retrieval and can be shared with anyone.
Organizes same topic resources in to one binder for each topic.
The topics can be divided, or types of resources can be separated, by using the tabs.
You can create a binder, and then share the binder with a group, before a class or presentation.

The best part is that its digital, and apps can be loaded on phones, ipads, tablets, or computers.

Cost: Build up to 5 binders for FREE

www.livebinders.com